From The Young and the Restless: This week Nick found out that a doppelganger for his dead daughter Cassie has been in town for months disgracefully spooking Sharon into getting shock treatments.The look-alike (who doesn’t even have a name) admitted the sham and said that Victor had been paying her to impersonate Cassie.

When confronted, Victor tried to use every trick in the book to get out of admitting his guilt.His main tactic was to say that Sharon herself has a secret and that she is no good for Nick.Sharon decided not to press charges against the fake Cassie and Victor, so the net effect is that Victor gets away with yet another crime.Why is Victor never caught or prosecuted for his treacherous, often criminal acts on Y&R?It gets unbelievable after a while.

From The Bold and the Beautiful:This week a delightful romance bloomed between late teenager Aly (Ashlyn Pearce) and Oliver (Zack Conroy).Their kiss-filled scenes were very refreshing, including a pool sceneat the Forrester mansion involving underwater photography.“She did a 180,” Carter raved about Alex’s personality switch from sour to sweet and in love to Maya, who didn’t believe that Oliver was sincere in his new affections for Aly.

But Aly is going to need all of her strength now that it is revealed that her father Thorne is sexually involved once again with Taylor. Fifteen years ago, Taylor ran over and killed Aly’s mother Darla in a car accident and Aly has been a troubled, mercurial soul ever since, frequently acting out her anger. Will the young sweet romance of Oliver and Ally, one of the nicest thing to happen on daytime in ages,be able to survive all of Aly’s troubles and personality swings?

From General Hospital:Sonny just gets deeper and deeper into his troubles after shooting and murdering A.J.This week, the very day of A.J.’s funeral (which questionably centered more on Sonny than on memories of A.J.)Sonny and Ava disgustingly made love in the Quartermaine tomb.They were immediately caught by Morgan, Sonny’s son and Ava’s longtime love.Can you imagine a father making love to his son’s girlfriend?Yuck!Morgan is just about to tell Olivia, Sonny’s love, of his infidelity.Will Olivia be able to forgive Sonny?Regardless, Sonny is on a fast road to self-destruction.Even though it is fascinating watching Maurice Benard’s performances as the disintegrating Sonny, this is indeed a sad story to watch.

On soap operas, situations and characters change very slowly.So it’s been somewhat of a shock that Luke Spencer, for most of his 35 years on General Hospital a lovable rogue, has turned into a major criminal.It was revealed in the last few months that he’s the one who is bankrolling the drug ring run by Julian Jerome and that he wants to bring down Sonny Corinthos, the drug dealer who has been his friend for decades.

Some may argue that Luke is actually coming full circle.After all, when he came to town in the late 70s, he was a criminal, albeit a low level one, in the Frank Smith organization.But through the love of Laura Spencer, he transformed himself and became a hero.He saved the world from the Cassidines’ weather machine and even became the mayor of Port Charles.

But what has really been strange about the Luke of recent days is why and how he has become a criminal again.The “old” Luke was last seen when he was knocked out and held a drugged hostage at the Miscavige Home for the Criminally Insane by one of its residents, Heather Webber.The “new” Luke, without any explanation, was seen plotting the take-over of the drug trade with Julian at Nicholas and Britt’s engagement party.

But is the new Luke really the same character as the old Luke?Of course, he’s still being played by Tony Geary, master of the soap acting game after 35 years. But some fans suspect he may really be Luke’s look-alike cousin Bill Eckert, and a fan or two have suggested he might even be Heather in disguise.

Whatever, the new Luke is certainly behaving a bit differently than the old Luke.He’s been seen doing drugs. He made more than onepass at young Kiki, who kickedhim in groin in retaliation.And he threatened the life of his fiancé Tracy’s Ned, who was trying to get him to sign a pre-nuptial agreement.

But whoever it is is certainly using Luke’s physical guise.He’s again engaged to his ex-wife Tracy, not for love this time, but to get a job at ELQ, which he’ll use to launder the Jerome drug money. Does he still love Tracy? Who knows?Geary’s excellent scenes with co-star Jane Elliot as Tracy continue after all these years. (How many total hours of air time have these two racked up together? Guinness Book of World Records, anyone?)

Why has GH decided to change Luke thus, especially without explanation.It’s a question that needs to be answered if the audience is to get much further satisfaction out of the current storyline.After years and years, it may be time to bring the unquestioned king of the Port Charles drug trade, Sonny Corinthos, down for good.Sonny has been shown disintegrating with guilt after shooting and killing A.J.Quartermaine. He’s poised for a fall.

But the last person anyone suspects might bring down Sonny is our Luke Spencer, the good guy who is a criminal once more.

Every soap opera needs a leading man. But perhaps because Ridge Forrester seems to have been at the center of most plots since The Bold and the Beautiful debuted more than 25 years ago, he seems more like a Master of the Universe than just a plain leading man.

Born handsome and rich, the son of Eric and Stephanie Forrester (Massimo Marone, an old lover of Stephanie’s, is Ridge’s biological father) Ridge has always had everything he wanted. His father Eric is head of Forrester Creations, a leading couture house, and he himself is the fashion house’s leading designer.

Ridge’s problem has always been women. Is it just because he is so attractive? It seems that he’s always involved with two women at a time, whether it’s Valley Girl Brooke and the late Caroline Spencer (his late first wife) or Brooke and Taylor, another wife of his. Taylor, a beautiful psychiatrist, seemed to at least understand Ridge. His attraction to Brooke, to whom he has been married three times, seems more physical, and the two certainly have had quite the tumultuous romance over the years.

Ridge was played by Ronn Moss from the role’s inception to 2012, when Moss suddenly left. Ridge and Brooke broke up over the thinnest of pretexts (Ridge found a text message from Brooke’s former lover Deacon) and Ridge went to live in Paris. During that year, Stephanie suffered from cancer, and later died of the disease. Ridge, a huge momma’s boy, didn’t even return for his mother’s funeral.

When Ridge did return at the end of last year, he was played by Englishman Thorsten Kaye, a fan favorite from his days on One Life to Live and All My Children. Kaye is of course a very different kind of actor from Moss, who seemed to own the role. Kaye’s Ridge is more introspective, but with his own Continental style delivers a Ridge who is just as much the self-absorbed, immature jerk he’s always been. And as always, Kaye is a treat to watch.

Thus when the new Ridge returned, he seemed to be the perfect man, suddenly very soft and tender, especially sympathetic toward Brooke’s sister Katie. Katie’s husband Bill had fallen in love with and run off with Brooke. Bill and Ridge hate one another. Ridge seemed to be Katie’s knight in shining armor and the two made off together, even after Ridge initially almost married Brooke. Right now, the two are having an idyllic romance and indeed Kaye and Heather Tom, who plays Katie, are probably the best acted couple in soapdom.

So it was a brilliant stroke when B&B shattered the image of the new perfect Ridge and had him make some moves at Forrester Creations that showed how arrogant and spoiled he could be. He tried to have photographer Oliver fired and brother Rick ousted from his position as president of the company. Both moves failed.

Eric offered him the presidency of the company should he and Katie break up. But arrogant and wanting his way as always, Ridge refused. Will Ridge Forrester be able to keep his new love Katie, and continue to have it all as B&B’s Master of the Universe?

Soaps rarely celebrate anniversaries on camera. But General Hospital had such a boffo 50th year, the 51st anniversary show just begged to be done. The resulting episode, which aired on April 1st, was a winner from start to finish.

As it should, it was introduced by pictures of Steve Hardy and Jessie Brewer at the Nurse’s Desk at the dawn of creation of GH. The episode centered on the Quartermaines, inasmuch as one of its chief members, A.J., had just passed away due to being shot by Sonny. Monica was seen talking to his dead body, bemoaning the fact that everyone she had had a hand in raising in the family had died. First A.J. (the first time he was believed dead), who had been a troublemaker his whole life due partially to his alcoholism. And now Jason is believed dead. All her children died way before their time, way too young, including daughter Emily, who came back from the dead to console her mother at A.J.’s sudden death.

Indeed, the episode made us realize that almost all the Quartermaines, the show’s central family for 40 years, are dead. Only Tracy remains from the original family. At the end of the episode, Lila, Edward and Alan (who also is dead) were seen leading A.J. up a hospital staircase, presumably to heaven. It’s hard for longtime GH viewers to believe that the Quartermaines are virtually gone. Tracy’s sons Ned and Dillon live on, and A.J.’s son Michael survives. Jason, who is generally believed to be dead, is actually comatose somewhere, waiting to be revived by some miracle work from Dr. Robin.

The anniversary’s show also featured flashbacks of Sonny and Carly in which Sonny pleaded with Carly not to turn him in for murdering A..J. The flashbacks were accompanied by performances from Carlys past and present: Sarah Brown, Tamara Braun and today’s Carly, Laura Wright. All three looked great and performed in tour de force fashion, reliving the embattled couple’s many romances, miscarriages, marriages and reunions. Through it all Maurice Bernard, played it straight as if the faces of Carly weren’t physically changing right before him. Quel plaisir!

Elsewhere, life in Port Charles went on. Brad missed his lover Lucas, who had dismissed him, because he had a longtime role in keeping secret that baby Ben really belonged biologically to Lulu and Dante, not to Britt, who stole their fertilized embryos and gave birth to him. Over at Elizabeth’s, the despised Dr. Obrecht kept Elizabeth and baby Ben hostage, waiting for Britt to come over to pick up her son and take him away. Instead, at the end of the week, Britt showed up to help Dante and Lulu. Will Dr. O, who has kidnapped Ben for a second time this time, get away with her crimes? Will Dante and Lulu ever get baby Ben back?